A record of flying adventures past and present. In the long run, it's all retro.

Saturday, September 06, 1997

Lesson #3 - Partial Redemption

Partial "redemption" but still not a terrific flight. As I suspected from my sim experience, I am not exactly a natural when it comes to learning new eye/hand (and foot!) coordination skills. I still am holding the controls in a virtual death grip, leading Jason to demonstrate how well the C150 flies hands off (he thought it was bumpy air before this, but it was me overcontrolling!). I'm thinking "light touch," yadda-yadda-yadda, but the inner Bruce is holding on for dear life, it seems. Yet I don't really feel afraid, and overall this flight was more relaxed. I even spotted the airport while we were on the 45 degree pattern entry (I saw the power plant reference point from 7 miles – I still don't have good S.A. concerning my location, though I recognize major distant reference points and some local ones now).

We did more stalls – I still don't have smooth control and recovery, though watching the wingtip helps). We also reviewed slow flight, gliding and climbing turns, and we finally got to a ground reference maneuver – a rectangular course ½ mile from a runway-like mowed farm field. I did OK on this, and I flew the pattern as far as final. Jason also had some "fun" – going vertical in the C150 (not for long!), pitched up into a stall at probably 75-80 degrees – cool! Also when we had to get down to 1000' AGL for the rectangular course, he did some REALLY steep maneuvers as he spiraled down. Got a couple of plus G's on that, and a few moments of neggies. I love that stuff – borderline aerobatics that I thought were beyond the lowly C150 (of course it helps to be doing these things nose-low for that 1G assist.)

I'm typing this at Logan as I wait to board a Lufthansa flight for Frankfurt (1 week). No lessons this week, of course, but I hope I can squeeze in 2 lessons the week of 9/15 before another tough work schedule week. Jason says we will start to really work on landings next lesson too (his today was a bit "firm" – a high flare and he basically dropped it in – there was a bit of a crossswind too for runway 18).